DEAD MAN WALKING
A film review by Zak Forsman
Copyright 1997 Zak Forsman
Redemption
Written and Directed by TIM ROBBINS
SUSAN SARANDON as Sister Helen Prejean SEAN PENN as Matthew Poncelet
"A film about looking into the heart of a killer and finding the soul of a man." These were the words used to describe DEAD MAN WALKING in the trailers and commercials that ran for the film. They're dead on, it's exactly what this film is about. It is not about the death penalty or right and wrong. It is about taking responsibility for your actions, honestly.
Based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, played by Susan Sarandon, DEAD MAN WALKING is a film about her experiences with death row inmate Matthew Poncelet. And at the same time that she is fighting to have his sentence reviewed, she is meeting with him and trying to get him to understand what he did. The film is about the process of working toward redemption.
The screenplay by Tim Robbins is first-rate. The dialogue between Sarandon and Penn is smart and never dull. Their scene together just before Penn is to be executed is one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in a movie theater. The dialogue is fresh and quick. Ideas, thoughts and subjects move quickly--they never drag--and much of this can be accredited to the two actors' performances. There was only one line that I was disappointed with. When Sean Penn is about to be executed, he expresses tearful apologies to one of his victim's father. Just then, the father of the other victim quips, "What about us," to his wife. This may be trite, but it was distracting in an otherwise solid screenplay.
Tim Robbins also directed this film. He did a fantastic job capturing (and never intruding on) Sarandon and Penn's scenes together. He also introduced some interesting aspects with regard to his shots. For example, there is a mesh-wire divider between the two actors much of the time. Robbins used that to symbolize a character's emotional state by how much the divider was obstructing the view of the actor's face. Much of the time Sarandon's is out of focus, well beyond the camera's depth of field, her face shown clearly. However, Sean Penn's wire-meshing is often as in focus as his face is, blocking his face more and making him appear hidden or closed off. Later, when the divider is changed to a clear plastic one, Robbins makes use of the actor's reflections in each other's shots under similar motivations.
If you have not seen this film, you are missing one of the greatest scenes between two actors that have ever been filmed. These two deserved their Oscar nominations and although only Susan won hers, they both deserved to. Once Sean Penn began to cry, I was sold.
This film has been accused of being pretentious for presenting Sean Penn's character as a Christ metaphor during the execution sequence because the table he is on requires his arms be strapped down out to the sides in a fashion similar to the crucified Jesus. Tim Robbins said that he was aware that the scene could be taken that way, but he was more interested in the fact that the table and equipment used were exact replicas of what was being used for actual executions. The table actually is designed that way and the only thing in that scene that they changed was how long it took to kill him. In the film it takes two or three minutes, in reality it takes about twenty.
Writing **** Directing **** Acting ****
Ratings are based on the four-star system
Zak Forsman, filmmaker
Swan Pictures Independent http://www.epix.net/~swan/ swan@epix.net
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